They gaped upon me [with] their mouths, [as] a ravening and a roaring lion.
Ver. 13. They gaped upon me with their mouths] As if they would have swallowed me up at a bit, like so many lycanthropi, or savage cannibals.
As a ravening and a roaring lion] Rapiens et rugiens leo, licet non sit mos boum rapere, Bulls do not use to raven though they roar (Kimchi); but the malignities of all fierce and fell creatures are to be found in cruel persecutors. Would any man take the Church's picture? saith Luther; then let him paint a silly poor maid sitting in a wood or wilderness, compassed about with hungry lions, wolves, bulls, boars, and bears, and with all manner of cruel and harmful beasts, and in the midst of a great many furious men, or rather monsters, assaulting her every moment and minute; for this is her condition in the world.